Universal Cinema Classics: Marx Brothers

In his brilliant Pervert’s Guide to the Cinema, Slavoj Zizek compares the three most famous Marx Brothers—Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo—with Freud’s divisions of the psyche: superego, id, and ego respectively. It’s a brilliant and entertaining illustration on Zizek’s part – the best kind of teaching; but its use also goes to show how closely related the Marx Brothers were to the thinking of the first half of the 20th century. If this sounds like too academic a source of enjoyment, it shouldn’t; the reason these classic films are getting an ambivalent three stars is mostly because, these days, you’re guaranteed more consistent laughs from something like Family Guy. But the best modern comedies owe a great debt to the style of these originals, which still shine in their deployment of slapstick, satire, wit and, above all, imagination.